Transnational Struggles for Recognition

Now more than ever, recognition represents a critical concept for social movements, both as a strategic tool and an important policy aim. While the subjects theoretical and empirical dimensions have usually been studied separately, this interdisciplinary collection focuses on both  to examine the pursuit of recognition against a transnational backdrop. With a special  emphasis on the efforts of womens and Jewish organizations in 20th-century Europe, the studies collected here show how recognition can be meaningfully understood in historical-analytical terms, while demonstrating the extent to which transnationalization determines a movements reach and effectiveness.

Dieter Gosewinkel is a professor of history at the Freie Universität Berlin and co-director of the Center for Global Constitutionalism at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. He has published widely in the field of modern history, legal history, and history of civil society and citizenship, includingZivilgesellschaft national und transnational with Dieter Rucht, Wolfgang van den Daele and Jürgen Kocka (Edition Sigma, 2004).

List of Illustrations

PART I: CONCEPTS

Introduction: The Transnationalization of Struggles for Recognition. Introduction and Summary of the Contributions
Dieter Gosewinkel

Chapter 1. Struggles for Recognition: Bridging Three Separated Spheres of Discourse
Dieter Rucht

Chapter 2. Understanding Transnational Social Movements: Potentials and Limits of Recognition Theory
Volker Heins

PART II: THE CASES FOR WOMEN AND JEWS

Chapter 3. By the sacred ties of humanity and common decent. The Transnationalization of Modern Jewish History and its Discontents
Tobias Metzler

Chapter 4. Jewish, Socialist, Antizionist: The Bund and its Transnational Relations
Gertrud Pickhan

Chapter 5. Institution Building and Policy Making at the Transnational Level: Challenges in the Early History of the World Jewish Congress
Emmanuel Deonna

Chapter 6. Struggles for Recognition and the Concept of Gender in Twentieth Century Poland
Claudia Kraft

Chapter 7. The Emergence of an Impossible Movement: Domestic Workers Organize Globally
Helen Schwenken

PART III: ENLARGING THE SCOPE

Chapter 8. Peace Movements and the Politics of Recognition in the Cold War
Holger Nehring

Chapter 9. Recognition Across Difference: Conceptual Considerations Against an Indian Background
Martin Fuchs

Chapter 10. Injustice Symbols and Global Solidarity
Thomas Olesen

Notes on contributors
Bibliography
Index